Wisconsin School Officer Kelly Casper allegedly forced children to undress while she searched for Vapes

A Wisconsin superintendent faces charges after she allegedly detained six girls in one high school bathroom and tell them to take off their clothes while she checks to see if they’re hiding vaping device.

Oconto County District Attorney Edward Burke announced Monday that Suring Public Schools Superintendent Kelly Casper, 51, has been charged with six counts of false imprisonment following allegations that on January 18 she arrested Four female students take off their underwear in the school bathroom. .

Two other students allegedly involved in the search testified that they were not wearing underwear, and said they were allowed to wear shorts, according to court documents.

The jail sentence came after Burke earlier said an initial investigation into the search did not find that administrators broke the law, but by allegedly keeping students in the bathroom. , Casper violated a state law that prohibited school personnel from locking students up.

“The state concluded that Kelly Casper did not have the legal authority to lock the students in a small restroom located outside the nurse’s office located within the Suring School Public Schools complex,” Burke said in a statement. solstice. “The facts and circumstances surrounding it led the State to conclude that the children involved did not consent to be detained.”

Casper, suspecting the students had vaping devices, is said to have directed the teenagers to the bathroom in the nurse’s office and told the nurse to assist by making sure that no one who was not involved in the search went away. into the area, according to court documents. The nurse told deputies that Casper asked police to search one of the students, but the student said she didn’t want the “police” to search her.

Burke said he reviewed statements and reports provided by the Oconto Sheriff’s Office about the children being searched and learned that the superintendent allegedly directed the children to undress them. once in the bathroom and stood in the doorway while the girls were inside.

“None of the children involved had a chance to leave,” Burke said. “The only choice they were given was to have the police or Casper conduct the search.”

In interviews with MPs, one of the girls said she was “too scared to say no, because she thought she was going to get in trouble”, according to one criminal complaint obtained by Greenbay Press-Gazette. Another allegedly said that “she feels violated and the school should not have the right to search the student the way they did her.”

One mother described to delegates that her daughter “thought that Director Casper would just pat her on but she started at the waistband of her leggings and slid her hands down her legs.”

She said after her daughter told Casper she didn’t have a vape, the general manager “threatened” to search her and slid her hand “over her butt”.

Some students were also asked to lift their bras away from their bodies – sometimes exposing their breasts, according to the complaint.

Raelene Helminger, the parent of a 16-year-old student sought, told WLUK-TV that she was relieved that the school official had been charged.

Helminger said: “When it finally led to today’s allegations, we are all delighted that these children were heard.

The nurse accompanying the girls began her work just a day before searching the bathroom and told police she presented the search to her supervisor the next day because she felt they are not suitable.

The nurse also told police she was “most annoyed” with the searches, according to the complaint, and that Casper did not demean the girls. The nurse’s supervisor is said to have said she would be contacting the clinic’s legal team to open an investigation.

Casper told the girls that they were “better than this” and that they were “making bad choices”. Casper also told the children she “really cares about them” and their future, according to the nurse.

The Suring School Board did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Tuesday, but its president, Wayne Slater, told Press-Gazette The board will share a statement regarding the incident at a special meeting on Wednesday.

Casper did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Tuesday, but Press-Gazette reported that she has served as superintendent of the Suring School District since 2015. Casper allegedly told officers she had completed years of training in student search and allegedly provided them with certificates of various training courses she attended. She did about 20 searches for students while working in another district, she allegedly said.

According to court documents, Casper testified that school staff informed her that one of the students was seen with a “blue vape” the day before the search, which she allegedly hid. under his shirt. She also told officers that the January searches were her first in Suring and that she had learned to “never touch children, never look at a child if they are naked. “

If convicted of all six counts, Casper faces up to 21 years in prison.

Helminger said to Press-Gazette that she hopes Casper will now be on administrative leave.

“Our whole goal was to get her out of that school and away from our children,” says Helminger. “We expect to see her get minimal administrative leave or fired because she doesn’t belong there.”